Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II eBook

FOOTNOTES:

[300] The Bructeri lived between
the Lippe and the Upper Ems,
the
Tencteri along the eastern bank of the Rhine, between
its
tributaries
the Ruhr and the Sieg, i.e. opposite Cologne.

[301] i.e. about 12,000
men. The bulk of the Fifth and a
detachment
of the Fifteenth had gone to Italy.

[302] i.e. Frisii,
Bructeri, Tencteri, &c.

[303] At Mainz.

[304] His other legion was
IV Macedonica.

[305] Cp. chap. 20.

[306] Neuss.

[307] He commanded the First
legion, which had joined the main
column
at Bonn.

[308] Gellep. Some words
are lost, perhaps giving the distance
from
Novaesium.

[309] See note 282.

[310] At Gelduba.

[311] Cp. iii. 61.

[312] The Menapii lived between
the Maas and the Scheldt; the
Morini
on the coast in the neighbourhood of Boulogne.
They
were
a proverb for ‘the back of beyond’.

[313] See i. 56, note 106.

[314] Dueren.

[315] i.e. the gate on
to the street leading to Head-quarters.

THE RELIEF OF VETERA

Such was the course of events in Germany up to the
date of the 31 battle of Cremona.[316] News
of this arrived by letter from Antonius Primus, who
enclosed a copy of Caecina’s edict,[317] and
Alpinius Montanus,[318] who commanded one of the defeated
auxiliary cohorts, came in person to confess that
his party had been beaten. The troops were variously
affected by the news. The Gallic auxiliaries,
who had no feelings of affection or dislike to either
party and served without sentiment, promptly took
the advice of their officers and deserted Vitellius.
The veterans hesitated; under pressure from Flaccus
and their officers they eventually took the oath of
allegiance, but it was clear from their faces that
their hearts were not in it, and while repeating the
rest of the formula they boggled at the name of Vespasian,
either muttering it under their breath or more often
omitting it altogether. Their suspicions were
further inflamed 32 when Antonius’
letter to Civilis was read out before the meeting;
it seemed to address Civilis as a member of the Flavian
party, and to argue hostility to the German army.
The news was next brought to the camp at Gelduba,
where it gave rise to the same comments and the same
scenes. Montanus was sent to carry instructions
to Civilis that he was to cease from hostilities and
not to make war on Rome under a false pretext; if
it was to help Vespasian that he had taken arms, he
had now achieved his object. Civilis at first
replied in guarded terms. Then, as he saw that
Montanus was an impetuous person who would welcome